Victor Van Meter
5 year old buck +
I believe this is a walnut tree. Can someone help identify which one? Thanks.
Walnut?
- Thread starter Victor Van Meter
- Start date
Victor Van Meter
5 year old buck +
I will try and get better pics.
MadMadHoosier
5 year old buck +
Picture this says it's a Mockernut Hickory, also known as Hognut, Bullnut, White, or Whiteheart Hickory. Picture this is not always perfect, and usually does better with leaves.
Victor Van Meter
5 year old buck +
Thanks. I will take some more pics when it leaves out.
hillrunner
5 year old buck +
If it's a walnut tree it should have walnuts on the ground around it.
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
Sort through the leaves, you might find some old nuts. Pics of the leaves would be helpful too. Bark shape looks like my young black walnut.
Ever recall large green nut hulks, about 2/3rds the size of a baseball or so.
en.wikipedia.org
extension.usu.edu
Ever recall large green nut hulks, about 2/3rds the size of a baseball or so.
Juglans nigra - Wikipedia
Walnut, Black | TreeBrowser
<em>Juglans nigra</em><br/>Juglandaceae - Walnut family
Victor Van Meter
5 year old buck +
If you can zoom in, there are hulls on the right of the tree. I should be over there tonight, I will take some more pics and look around.
T-Max
5 year old buck +
Looks like walnut to me. Like ours, it seems like there is more moss or green on the bark. We see that more on walnuts than our other trees. I would also look for those stalks that the leaflets are attached to. There should be a bunch that you should be able to find on the ground around it.
Victor Van Meter
5 year old buck +
PatinPA
5 year old buck +
That is a hickory nut hull. Walnuts will be much bigger and if they've been laying around, they'll stain your hands black. I don't believe deer eat hickory nuts but the squirrels will love them.
Victor Van Meter
5 year old buck +
Pretty sure it isn't a shell bark because there are a few of those in the same area and they look much different.
Thanks for all the info. Being that deer do not seem to pay them much attention, I have to decide if they are worth keeping around, or cut down and plant something else.
Mockernut hickory, for sure. That sort of 'diamond' ridged bark is typical and the brown nut & husk clinch the ID.
Shellbark has 'shaggy' bark, similar to shagbark, though often a bit less 'shaggy'. Shagbark nuts are usually white/light brown, shellbark nuts are brown, and typically thicker than those of shagbark.
Mockernut kernels are probably the very tastiest of the hickories, but the shell is so thick, with internal convolutions that trap nutmeats, that you can usually only extract little fragments of kernel, and you need a very substantial hardshell nutcracker to crack them.
Pecan, shagbark, and shellbark are really the only hickory species that have much utility for humans, with regard to edible nuts. Bitternut... there's a growing group of folks seeking them out for cold-pressing for the oil; the tannins that make them inedible are water-soluble and are left behind when the oil is pressed out.
Pic below is 3 of my better shagbarks (on left) and a couple of shellbarks. Thin shell is desirable, but internal shell structure has more influence on whether a nut cracks out intact halves/quarters. I have a couple of shagbarks with shell thinner than most pecans, but internal ridges trap nutmeat, making them almost not worth the trouble to gather.
Shellbark has 'shaggy' bark, similar to shagbark, though often a bit less 'shaggy'. Shagbark nuts are usually white/light brown, shellbark nuts are brown, and typically thicker than those of shagbark.
Mockernut kernels are probably the very tastiest of the hickories, but the shell is so thick, with internal convolutions that trap nutmeats, that you can usually only extract little fragments of kernel, and you need a very substantial hardshell nutcracker to crack them.
Pecan, shagbark, and shellbark are really the only hickory species that have much utility for humans, with regard to edible nuts. Bitternut... there's a growing group of folks seeking them out for cold-pressing for the oil; the tannins that make them inedible are water-soluble and are left behind when the oil is pressed out.
Pic below is 3 of my better shagbarks (on left) and a couple of shellbarks. Thin shell is desirable, but internal shell structure has more influence on whether a nut cracks out intact halves/quarters. I have a couple of shagbarks with shell thinner than most pecans, but internal ridges trap nutmeat, making them almost not worth the trouble to gather.
Attachments
Last edited:
Mockernut... from a 'game' standpoint, are mostly only gonna feed squirrels and mice. I suppose bears might eat them, but we don't have them here.
I have no idea what value they have, from a timber harvest standpoint.
You can make 'hickory syrup' from the mockernut nuts (and toss in a few husks, for more color).
I generally make mine from shagbark/shellbark nutshells left over after cracking & picking out the kernels, but historically, it was made by peeling strips of bark off shagbark trees, boiling it, adding sugar and cooking down. Tastes like maple syrup - only better!
I cook my nutshell pieces in a crockpot (pictured below is my Hamilton Beach slow-cooker - it will boil liquids on 'high'; my old Rival crockpot doesnt really get hot enough to do a good job cooking the nuts - I used to boil them for 6 hrs or so on the stovetop, adding water frequently as it boiled off) for about 24 hrs, strain through an old t-shirt, then add 1.5 cups sugar per cup of 'liquor'. Cook it down for about an hour, then decant into canning jars; I usually cook a few intact nuts and include one in each jar.
I'm sure mockernut nuts, cracked with a hammer or vise-grips, and cooked down, would make great syrup, maybe with richer flavor than shagbark bark or nutshells. I have tossed a few mockernut nuts into a batch of shells I was cooking down, in the past, but I usually don't bother gathering mockernuts.
I have no idea what value they have, from a timber harvest standpoint.
You can make 'hickory syrup' from the mockernut nuts (and toss in a few husks, for more color).
I generally make mine from shagbark/shellbark nutshells left over after cracking & picking out the kernels, but historically, it was made by peeling strips of bark off shagbark trees, boiling it, adding sugar and cooking down. Tastes like maple syrup - only better!
I cook my nutshell pieces in a crockpot (pictured below is my Hamilton Beach slow-cooker - it will boil liquids on 'high'; my old Rival crockpot doesnt really get hot enough to do a good job cooking the nuts - I used to boil them for 6 hrs or so on the stovetop, adding water frequently as it boiled off) for about 24 hrs, strain through an old t-shirt, then add 1.5 cups sugar per cup of 'liquor'. Cook it down for about an hour, then decant into canning jars; I usually cook a few intact nuts and include one in each jar.
I'm sure mockernut nuts, cracked with a hammer or vise-grips, and cooked down, would make great syrup, maybe with richer flavor than shagbark bark or nutshells. I have tossed a few mockernut nuts into a batch of shells I was cooking down, in the past, but I usually don't bother gathering mockernuts.
Attachments
Last edited:
Brian662
5 year old buck +
That's awesome. I'm impressed. My wife and kids love maple syrup, this seems like a reasonable alternative with some sources we can find on our own land.
Depending upon your desired consistency, you can cook the syrup shorter or longer; I like mine thicker than most store-bought maple-flavored syrups. If you go above the 1.5 C. sugar per cup of 'liquor', it tends to crystallize out - and not sludgy crystallization like honey - I'm talking big quartz-crystal like crystals.... flavored rock candy. You can substitute corn syrup for 1/4 to 1/3 of the sugar to get away from the crystallization issue, but I don't.
Thinner syrup may need to be either used quickly or refrigerated between use, after opening... the only 'preservative' is the sugar, and at low concentrations (thin, watery syrup) it will ferment.
Jar on left had a few hickory nut husks cooked along with nutshell fragments... yields a darker color.
I made one batch, a year or two ago, using only nut husks... no shells... it was black as a thief's heart, but had that same great flavor!
Thinner syrup may need to be either used quickly or refrigerated between use, after opening... the only 'preservative' is the sugar, and at low concentrations (thin, watery syrup) it will ferment.
Jar on left had a few hickory nut husks cooked along with nutshell fragments... yields a darker color.
I made one batch, a year or two ago, using only nut husks... no shells... it was black as a thief's heart, but had that same great flavor!
